Both Sides Argue Foster Care Suit

January 26, 2001|By SHANA GRUSKIN Staff Writer

A lawyer for the state belittled a foster care lawsuit before a Miami federal magistrate Thursday by characterizing the case as a national advocacy group's attempt to get attention and outdo another advocacy group.

"It is a shotgun, rambling document; it literally takes hours for anyone to decipher what the claims are," Paul Hancock, deputy Attorney General for South Florida, said while arguing why the suit should be either dismissed or, at the very least, denied class-action status.

"What we have here is an effort to make headlines," he said.

Hancock represents the state Department of Children & Families, Department Secretary Kathleen Kearney and Gov. Jeb Bush in what's referred to as the "Bonnie L" foster care lawsuit -- named for the first plaintiff in the complaint.

The suit, filed in June, outlines the plight of 22 foster children, most from Palm Beach County, who allege they were abused, neglected or otherwise mistreated while in state care. The suit originally was filed by Karen Gievers, an activist who sued Children & Families on similar grounds in 1990. It now boasts a legal team of at least 30 lawyers, some of whom hail from the New York-based Children's Rights Inc. Children's Rights is embroiled in child-welfare litigation in at least nine states.

Hancock argued that past foster care-related class-action suits -- some settled, one ongoing -- makes this latest one redundant. In stating his case, he pitted Children's Rights against the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center, another national advocacy group that settled last year with the state over a Broward County foster care suit, named "Ward."

"What we have here, your honor, is the issue of dueling advocacy groups," Hancock said. "What is it in the Ward settlement they don't like? They want a panel of experts outside Florida to come forward and manage the foster care system."

"If you have the facts, you argue the facts. If you have the law, you argue the law," she said. "If you don't have either you just attack the messenger and try to confuse things."

On Thursday, lawyers for both sides went before U.S. Magistrate Robert DubM-i in Miami to argue the state's motion to dismiss the case and the plaintiffs' motion for class-action certification. DubM-i will review the motions as well as other related documents before making recommendations to U.S. Judge Federico Moreno.

Moreno won't decide the case until at least February.

Class action status would widen the suit from 22 children to between 15,000 and 18,000 kids. That, in turn, would empower advocates to implement a statewide reform of the foster care system, Gievers said.

"We've got to get some handle on this," she said. "The fact of the matter is we need kids to have a life while the bureaucracy tinkers and fixes itself."

Shana Gruskin can be reached at sgruskin@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6537.